Posts Tagged ‘active toddler’

They have so much control over their ab muscles, it makes me almost jealous. Almost.

So, my plan?

Follow my toddler!

It’s a great game to play with M AND a small work out at the same time.

Toddlers can’t keep still.. I think that’s why no matter how much my little girl eats, she doesn’t gain much weight.. oh, to have that problem again!

So, what I’ve been doing lately is following her lead. If she wants to crawl around the apartment, I’ll crawl too! If she wants to run around, I will too. If she wants to march up and down the hall, so will I! If she wants to turn on her tip toes, then you’ll find me doing the same.

When we lie down, she loves when I copy her. She’ll lift up her legs, I lift up my legs. She’ll send them crashing down on the bed, I’ll send them crashing down on the bed. I think she likes that the most because my legs make the bed shake.

The local library has craft time for toddlers every Wednesday. I figured this would be a fun little activity for M to do.

It would be her first time doing a somewhat structured activity outside the home. She would sit down, glue some stuff on to a piece of paper.. the end.

If only it were that simple!

We got to the library, and immediately, M’s eyes lit up. As we got to the children’s section, there were pictures of animals and things she knew. Right away, she says in her “loud by default” voice, “Pig! There! Oink, oink!”

“Shhhhh…” says Hubby and I.

We put her down onto the large circle carpet where all the children’s board books were. My intention was to show her some library books so we could check them out and finish our Summer Reading Program.

She decided that the big circle carpet was a perfect open space to run around and twirl on. Did I mention she was singing and vocalizing at the same time?

“Shhhhh…” again from the hubs and I.

It came time to sit down at the tables and start gluing. It was paper shaped like a basket, and some paper fruit.

M recognized each fruit and started naming them. If we weren’t in a library, it would have been really cute because she would get so excited about each fruit. “Strawberry! Gapes! Oh-nges!”

“Shhhhh…” Luckily, it was just Hubby and I trying to keep her quiet!

She wanted to eat the fruit. She LOVES pretending, especially pretend eating.

I showed her that she was supposed to glue the fruit down onto the basket. I put glue onto the back of the fruit and tried to get her to hold it. She proceeded to get glue on her fingers, which she didn’t like.

Hubby helped her glue down a few pieces of fruit, but she got tired of that.. FAST.

So, she got down from her chair and decided to explore.

And by “explore” I mean, running up and down the aisles of the children’s section, while being her normally loud self..

Hubby gave chase and you knew the moment he caught her because all you could hear was, “No. Down, out! Doooooown.”

Hubby stepped outside to the near by atrium, and all I saw was her running around and just enjoying herself.

There was no way I was going to be able to get her back onto the chair to finish this project. So, being the only crafty one in this little family, I finished the project for her!

Hubby brought her back into the library, but she did not want to stay quiet. I told Hubby to finally just take her outside.

I was so embarrassed, but I kept my head high. I gathered my things. Checked out the books I wanted, and left.

It was totally embarrassing while I was in the moment. But now that I’ve had hours and hours to think about it, the less and less embarrasing it is. Why should I be embarrassed? I’m a parent! This is what I deal with! You can’t tell me I’m the only one that’s had to go through this.

There wasn’t anything I could do. She definitely was NOT ready for this. I thought she would be. She loves coloring. She can sit still when being read to. She’s normally a well-behaved child. She’s been praised several times for her behavior in a restaurant. She doesn’t mind being in a stroller or shopping cart. She’s never acted out inappropriately.

This just wasn’t her thing.

It was new to her. It was a new environment, and she wanted to explore. She just doesn’t know that she had to be quiet in a library, and with all the stuff to see, the last thing she wanted was to sit down and glue paper together. There was nothing defiant about her behavior. She was just curious and excited.

I understand.

And in her defense, she WAS probably the youngest one there.

The mothers there were very understanding. The library staff didn’t say a word. I’m sure this wasn’t the first time they had an active toddler there during craft time.

After the library fiasco, we decided to take her to the nearby park to just run around and blow off some steam. This park has a huge duck pond and we ended up circling the pond three times! She’s definitely a ball of energy!

I will definitely wait a while before trying this again. Maybe a song and dance class would be more her style…